JPB

I haven't written much about the love of my life lately but everything is going well. It's just a bit too personal to talk too much about us. But he's been absolutely adorable and we've been having a great time. Well past the eighteen month point and still going strong.

Paris is stunningly beautiful. Food practically spills out onto the road from all the patisseries and boulangeries and cafes and what have you. Like London, there are beautiful churches and buildings around every corner but the Parisians seem to have sorted the place out so that the most prominent civic monuments are given their rightful space (though I guess this all came at a cost to the lower classes when the various rulers decided to impose their "town planning" schemes on their subjects...). Even their centrepiece waterway is spared the riverfront developments and given a line of trees along its banks. From the time JPB and I arrived 'til our Saturday night at Eiffel Tower, we simply couldn't have seen any more beauty and splendour. Paris is truly magnifique!

But then Sunday arrived. Dimanche.

My first day in London was a Sunday and the place was alive. People were out taking full advantage of their city. In particular, all of the shops were open and packed with people. True, London was experiencing the kind of weather that even a Sydney-sider would consider to be superb, whereas Paris had turned gloomy and grey. But, in any other city, it would have been fine if we could find a decent place to spend some money.

At about lunch time we discovered that even the department store down the road (Bazar d'Hotel de Ville) was closed. What hope did we have? Only the crappiest shops pushing crap-arse multi-coloured Eiffel Tower models were doing business. We couldn't even get a decent croissant!

So JPB and I decided to ditch our shopping efforts and went off on a river cruise. Nice. By the end the rain had stopped, which allowed us to get out and take pictures. I guess I would have had a better time if I had gone to the toilet before the cruise, otherwise I wouldn't have spent the entire time busting to go to the loo and enjoyed the sights more. My bad, yes. After the cruise we found that the tickets entitled us to a discount at the Conciergerie, an old prison that housed about 4000 people in its history including Marie Antoinette. Besides the old clock (which is outside anyway and free for all to see) and the Hall of the Men-At-Arms, it is by far the CRAPPIEST tourist destination in Paris. Don't bother going, even with discount, it sucks.

Not happy with the way our day was turning out, we decided to quit the sight-seeing and headed down to the cinema. The Devil Wears Prada was showing at the Odeon on St Germain Boulevard so the pass the time 'til Seance we headed down to a pub for a beer each. SEVENTEEN EUROS LATER (not to mention the expresso that was four euros fifty a pop!) we headed back to the cinema only to find that the movie we wanted to see was Complet and there was a massive line to buy tickets for the NEXT session.

Unperturbed we headed across town (over the Ile de la Cite) to Beauborg only to find that the cinema there showed Version Francaise. Not only that but at that moment someone had fallen off the Centre Georges Pompidou (or jumped off, we weren't sure) and apparently died, and the police and ambulance were starting to gather. Pulling out our respective city guides we decided to catch the metro up to Opera and, after walking down the street in the wrong direction, finally found a session in English.

Really enjoyed the movie, BTW.

Had some pretty unremarkable French food and headed home, glad to have the dreaded Sunday firmly in the past. Except the next morning, JPB woke up and wasn't feeling very well.

The lesson is: Paris is great, except on Sundays when it really really sucks.

And lundi isn't much cop either!

But I do still love the place.

Tags: Paris, JPB, Sunday.

We're stuck in some motor inn on the main road of Ballarat and so were only required to fill out a Personal Form.  Ripped off, we only got to answer questions
 about ethnic background, education, employment, and whether or not I did unpaid domestic work (yes, I did tidy up my hotel room that day when I slept in 'til lunch...)  There was that optional question about religion and, not wanting to seem all 2001 and put "Jedi", I just went for the "no religion" option.  Possibly the hardest questions were about how many hours I worked last week (how long was that flight to Hobart again?) and where was I living five years ago (what's the post code for Menora again?) but, besides that, it was disappointingly straightforward.

JPB back home had a more interesting experience:  what is the status of our relationship?  Just eight days shy of our first-date one-year anniversary, his suggestion was to have me down as "rent boy".  Cheeky.  Anyway, it didn't seem enough to cross the "de facto" box; although a simple cross-reference to an earlier question would uncover just as much, it seemed more appropriate to exploit the "other" box to state clearly: "same-sex defacto".  Sure, this is tainted slightly by the notion that such a relationship is an "other".  But what else is there to do?  Apparently there is no questions specifically about orientation so this is it.

In any case, its better than "rent boy": my limit is only five hours a week of domestic work...

On second thoughts, I think we should have just went for de facto.  A computer better understands a marked box than handwritten letters.  Oh well, better luck next time.

Technorati Tags: Census, Gay, JPB, relationship status

I (heart) U Jhuny 9
Originally uploaded by Jhuny.

JPB and I will always have Melbourne. He came down to visit me last week and it was brilliant. The delicious dinner at Ciccolina in St Kilda, afternoon drinks at Transport, seeing Capote, getting trapped by a flash flood on Brunswick street...

I opened the door to reveal a dark room with corrugated iron walls. The stacked chairs threatened to fall on me. At the very back I could make out a refridgerator and a sofa stacked on it's side. At my feet was a television and a computer monitor. Stacks and stacks of boxes.

So this is my life, then? All stuffed into a space no bigger than your average bathroom. Lucky for me I had sold my bed, there was no way it was going to all fit. I get the sense that there is alot, and that I have alot of junk, remembering that my washing machine and heaters are being loaned out to friends, and my car is parked out the front of the storage place. Then again, I don't own a house...

I found room to store a couple of last boxes and locked the door. It was kind of liberating to do that, like I was now living a slimmed-down version of my life. Surely the great Buddha realised that getting rid of your material possessions was good not to reach a higher spirituality but because moving is just such a bitch. Sometimes I fantasise about that room being nukes, obliterating all of that unnecessary stuff.

Being on opposite sides of the city from JPB got quite annoying. Besides, after *living* in the west (albeit extremely close to the city) for eight months I realise that I'm simply not a west end girl. Sure I only really spent at most two months there but it was enough to decide that I really don't need the space of a one-bedroom apartment at the moment in my life and that I would rather be where the action happens. Faced with a seven-week stint in Melbourne beginning in the next few days, it seemed like a good time to make the move; not having to pay Sydney rent for that time is a good thing!

Next on the agenda: get rid of the car...

Oh, and update my blog on a regular basis again...

JPB and I had just finished a fantastic meal at The Cellar in the Hunter Valley. I had taken him up there for his birthday and the dinner was a delightful way to finish off a fun day of wine tasting. Up until that point, it had been a perfect day.

So the last thing we were expecting was a wine glass to be thrown at us.

At the very least, I've had a very eventful holiday season. Though for the second time in about two weeks I found myself dusting off bits of glass. Most of the offending projectile landed in JPB's lap. Both of us weren't hurt, I was a bit rattled by the experience and needed to go home and have a good night sleep but JPB seemed quite unperturbed.

One of the guys at the next table stood up, yelled "Why do I have to sit here and watch this all night?", and stormed off. Alot of commotion on the next table and an embarrassed young lady came up to us to check if we were alright; she apologised and offered to take care of our bill while the rest of her party took off. I was quite stunned and couldn't say a word. The lovely wait staff efficiently took care of us, making sure we were okay and whisking us to an empty table to clean up the mess. JPB and I aren't even sure what was thrown at us, it could have been a glass or a bottle, but everything was cleaned up so quickly. Before we knew it the neighouring party had left, the table had been cleaned up and the other restaurant patrons were focussed back on their own tables. Though our bill was paid, on our departure JPB offered a significant tip to thank the girls for their help. Nothing was said on the entire trip back to our guest house.

The entire night I hadn't paid any attention to anyone else but JPB and even though JPB had been directly facing the guy the whole night and saw him stand up to throw the glass, it all came out of nowhere for him as well. We don't think they would be local people because, well, it's the Hunter Valley, you'd expect the locals to be used to poof couples visiting for the lovely food and wine. JPB and I had been on a bus tour the whole day, we had been to a number of wineries, we had been affectionate the entire time and up until then no one around us seemed to have a problem.

It was such a shame. It could have been a perfect day.

Tags: Gay, Hunter Valley, The Cellar, restaurant, homophobia.

With JPB and I separated by a few thousand kilometres, there's not very much "gay" happening at the moment. I'm on the phone to Sydney pretty much every night and I did catch up with FagInTheBush but that's about it. Talking. Oh, and telling JPB that I love him and I miss him and JPB being worried about me when I told him about the blowout.

I set up my parent's audiovisual centre a couple of days ago and used Kylie's Showgirl dvd to test it out. Okay so this is not necessarily a "gay" thing but you can't deny that Red Blooded Woman is dripping wet with homo, none of the male dancers seem at all concerned about Kylie and instead would rather flex their muscles at each other. mmm... muscles... Oh, and there's that Pet Shop Boys collaboration with Kylie about some guy who's In Denial.

And on the news I saw Elton John and partner (sorry, dude, for not knowing your name) get "together". Not officially "married", to be sure, but at least recognised and with legal rights to... something... well anyway it was a bit of a shock to hear Tony Blair comment on it, saying that he proud that Britain is taking this step forward, allowing gay civil partnerships to occur. Good on you. Had you not sent troops to Iraq you'd be my favourite pollie.

Tags: Gay, News, Northern Territory, Civil Union, Gay Marriage, Elton John.

Update: Watching more news. Dad grunted disapprovingly and I chirped that it was a good thing. Elton John and partner are currently the face of gay marriage (even though they aren't really married). Lots of talk about the estimated combined annual income of all the poofs in Great Britain and I'm thinking "what's that got to do with love?" Maybe it's because Mr and Mr Elton John aren't really married, which is about love (apparently), they're just "unified civilly", which is more about tax. Oh well, baby steps...

This morning, JPB gave me my birthday present. Guess what it is: It's small, but it's not a mini...

yep! One of these.

How exciting. Can you top that?

Mind you, I'm happy enough just waking up in the morning with him...

Tags: Birthday, present, iPod, nano.

More info: I couldn't get back to sleep this morning so I went downstairs to watch some TV. Went back up to JPB's room at about the time we normally wake up to find two small packages beside the bed. Opened the first box, initially saw a pile of chocolate love hearts, how sweet. Dug underneath and pulled it out.

Sat there. Stunned...

Oh my god has anyone seen Bangarra's tour schedule for 2006? I knew it was going to be a hard year next year but this is bloody ridiculous! On the plus side, we're in Darwin at the end of May, it'll be our second tour destination so the show will still be fresh. But by the time we get to, say, Lismore, I'm going to be a nervous wreck. And what about JPB??? Did anyone at Bangarra consider the consequences this tour will have on my relationship with JPB? Not to mention the two months we'll be spending in Melbourne trying to get the Gathering program together with the Australian Ballet. Or the month that we'll be overseas for the UK tour.

Six months away from Sydney...

In truth, it's not beyond asking, a schedule like this. 2004 was almost as full-on as well. But back then I wasn't leaving anyone behind. This is going to be a problem.

Meanwhile, even though we only have a few more performances left this year, rehearsals have been pretty good. We're re-mounting Rites using a very obscure archive video of a performance from 1999. I guess the best thing about it is that it's NEW (at least for me) after touring a show that we've done for over two-and-a-half years. It's also fast and has alot of movement, alot of which is already familiar, stylistically. Questions oft asked in a Bangarra rehearsal like "is the foot flexed?" are easily answered and taken on ("of course the foot is flexed!") How's that for progress? It's been three years and now I've learnt that feet are usually flexed by default.

and you're probably gonna wanna *knock-knee* as well...

Of course it's not always that simple. But at the very least it no longer seems all that foreign to me anymore.

Tags: Dance, Bangarra, tour, travel.